Wetland protections are shifting, especially in Ottawa

In November 2022, the Ontario government made many moves at once aimed at speeding up housingconstruction and easingthe crunch. Housing is a priority for the Progressive Conservatives and they have changed many rules and processes since comingto power six years ago.

One of the changes that fall saw the governmentrewrite large sections ofthe manual used to protect Ontario's most significantwetlands. Some builders had called for the changes, saying small wetlands didn't warrant top-notch protections. Conservation groups and municipalities warned it would lead to wetland losses.

Not much was heard about what was happening on the ground after an updated scorecard for wetlands rolled out in January 2023.

• Ottawa wetlands cut from 'provincially significant' list

It turns out tracking the effects of those changesisn't easy. The Ministry of Natural Resources now has avery limited role. Clues only surface when lines shift on the officialmap, or when one ofOntario's 444 municipalities is senta copy of a finished report.

CBC Ottawa spent time in the city's rural areas, did interviewsand reviewed many documents to learn more about three local wetlands that have been scored using Ontario's updatedpoints system.

Two wetlands lost their provincial protections, while a third huge wetland was designated for the first time but is not as big as it might have been.

Wetland 1: The private rural property

A rural property ownercleared hislandnear Highway 7 in Ottawa'srural west, including a few hectares of what was then classified as provincially significant wetland.

The re-evaluation that followed saw the entire 41-hectare wetland lose protection because the new rules meant itcould no longer be scored as part of a bigger complex with neighbouring wetlands.

• Wetland in west Ottawa lost status after land was cleared

Cleared of brush and trees, this wetland lost its provincial protection

21 days ago

Duration 2:25

The owner of a rural property in Ottawa has been ordered to let vegetation regrow after he cleared part of a big wetland.

Wetland 2: The quarry

Tomlinson Group has plans to triple the size of its quarry operation west of Stittsville. The expansion lands include two wetlands that used to be labelled provincially significant. They no longer are.

The future of this wetland highlights two priorities: the need for construction materials, and the desire to protect wetlands for flood retention and other benefits.

• Plan to expand Stittsville quarry would remove wetlands

Why wetlands could give way to an expanded quarry in west Ottawa

18 days ago

Duration 3:33

An Ottawa quarry owner has filed applications to effectively triple the operation's footprint. Their plan involves removing and then restoring two wetlands that had been designated as "provincially significant." The CBC's Kate Porter explains.

Wetland 3: The big urban expansion

When the Algonquins of Ontario and Taggart Group pitched a big development in Ottawa's rural southeast back in January 2021, they laid out an area they owned that included a number of natural areas.

Before their proposal, the City of Ottawa had not felt a pressing need to evaluate the swamp and marsh in the area.

The results were published in October, and the South Bear Brook wetland now has top-notch provincial protections. At 561 hectares, it's a big area, but it might have covered more than a thousand hectares under the old rules.

• Large wetland near Tewin development gets protected

Hundreds of hectares of land near future Tewin suburb are now protected as wetlands

12 days ago

Duration 4:08

In one of the biggest wetland designations the City of Ottawa has completed in recent years, 561 hectares of swamp and marsh near the future Tewin project are now protected as provincially significant meaning they cant be developed or disturbed.